Practical Ethics and Responsibility Competition
"How am I responsible for the environment? Should there be limits on how we can punish people who do wrong? If very ill patients want to die, should doctors be held responsible if they help them? Who is responsible for the global spread of infectious diseases?"
If these and other questions about our responsibilities towards each other, our planet and our future make you think, then this competition is for you!
At the Uehiro Oxford Institute we think a lot about responsibility and how we can all do more to tackle some of the biggest ethical problems facing us today. We invite school students in Year 11, 12 or 13 (S4-S6 in Scotland, Years 12-14 in Northern Ireland) to take part in our UK-wide Practical Ethics and Responsibility Competition by making a video to tell us about an ethical problem and how you think responsibility is involved.
The Final of the 2026 PERC competition took place in Oxford on 24th March. We were delighted to welcome 4 superb teams for a challenging day of debates, talks and philosophy. The teams competed through three tough debates to settle the top places for 2026. All the teams were well prepared, and so engaged with practical ethics, and we would like to congratulate them all for their hard work - as well as thank the schools and teachers who supported them. Their video entries can be found below.
The 2026 top spot was claimed by The Royal Latin School. Second place went to Westminster School, third to Highgate School and fourth to Varndean Sixth Form College. We hope all four teams are very proud of themselves, we are certainly proud of them!
The 2027 PERC competition will launch in the autumn. Full details of the competition plus the terms and conditions (subject to change for the next round) are available on the How to take part page and you can see video entries of previous years on the Past winners pages or on our YouTube Channel.
How to take part Tips, ideas and resources Past winners
